Little Black Submarines
by fictiondust
Summary: Her eyes stopped on Raleigh's face, glued. There was a smirk on his lips that you're supposed to find charming in spite of yourself. Her attention was again diverted to his breathtaking blue eyes. She had never been a sucker for blue eyes… Until now anyway. Releigh/OC
1. Chapter 1

_Authors note: Hey! Thank you for clinking on my story! i just wanted to warn you that i changed a couple of things in the story (well it is a fanfiction) and everything should be clear in the story but of course, please let me know if something is not clear. I'm all about the productive criticisms reviews and feedback so please don't hesitate to share your oppinion with me. Stay excilent and don't forget to be awesome._

* * *

He was pleased with himself.

That's how he felt, pleased, happy, proud to have done this with his brother Yancy by his side.

Yancy was smiling.

"You've endangered the lives of millions for a boat that caries ten" Marshall Pentecost's voice boomed over the radio.

"With all due respect sir, we've managed to save the lives on the boat and take down the Kaiju with two shots of plasma cannon-" replied Yancy.

"You've disobeyed a direct order Ranger, get back to the Shatterdome now." Ordered Pentecost.

"Yes, sir." Obliged Raleigh smiling back at his brother. They had done it.. Pleased. Happy. Proud.

"Ranger the Knifehead is still alive, take the fishing boat and get to safety, do you hear me?! Take the boat and get to safety!" Pentecost yelled over the radio. But it was too late. Before they could act or think, The Knifehead jumped on Gipsy's left shoulder and tore it off. Raleigh yelled out in pain. Yancy yells at his baby brother to hold on and that he got this, charging the second plasma canon but before they knew it, Knifehead tore open the Conn-Pod and ripped Yancy out of the cockpit.

"NOOO!" yelled Raleigh.

He was breathless, in bed, covered in sweat.

He squeezed his eyes shot and tried to slow down his breathing. He could feel Yancy's fear, his panic and his anger inside himself. He set up in his bed, eyes still shut.

His throat felt sore. "no…" he repeated but this time it was a whisper.

It had been 5 years and 5 months since that day, but it was still vivid like yesterday in his dreams. The only difference that came with years was that he could shake it off faster now. It wasn't his own feelings he struggled with anyway, it was his brothers. They were still connected when he had died, and the anger, the shock, the helplessness his brother felt, kept on coming back to taunt and haunt him.

As he got out of bed he hit his pinky toe on the metal bedside table. Hard. "S-sshit!" he hissed. That reminded him where he was, he wasn't in Alaska anymore, he was in the Hon Kong Shatterdome in his own private room. He turned on the lights and took a look at the unfamiliar room.

It was 3:27 in the morning.

They needed him, that's what Pentecost had said. They had a plan to stop all this and they needed all operating Jaegers on board and so, Raleigh was to pilot Gipsy Danger once again with a co-pilot he had yet to meet.

He limped to his small bathroom, his toe still aching. He splashed cold water to his face then decided that wasn't good enough, so he got undressed and got in to the shower, letting the cool water run.

"Would you rather die here building the Wall, or in a Jaeger"

Those were the words that got Raleigh agree. He couldn't fight with that logic.

When he got out of the shower it was 4:15. He decided he didn't want to be up. His brain was functioning too much for his liking, worrying about every thing; what was this plan that would end all Kaiju? Who would be his co-pilot? Would any of the candidates even be good enough? Is HE good enough? Did he break his toe? Whatever the plan is would it even work? And GOD his toe hurt..

He got back in to bed with just his sweatpants and fell asleep to have nightmares of his brother again.

* * *

Mako Mori knocked on Raleigh Becket's door. It was 7:30 in the morning. She was always out of her room at 7:30. She figured waking would be a good idea so he could eat his breakfast and get ready for his co-pilot try outs that were tomorrow. She wanted desperately to be one of the candidates... But she told herself she needed to respect her step father Pentecost's decision.

When she didn't get an answer she started to make her way to the cafeteria.

Raleigh's opened his door. "Mako?"

Mako turned to see Raleigh Backet in only sweatpants, covered in sweat.

Mako blinked in surprise and staring at his bare chest a moment longer that she had intended. "Mr. Backet, I just thought you might want to get something to eat and then some practice before tomorrows tryouts.." she trailed off "but I suppose you already were?"

Raleigh looked at her for a moment without getting what she meant, he followed Mako's gaze and realized she was talking about his sweaty worn out look. With a smirk he said "Oh yeah, you could say that."

They stood there for a moment not knowing what to say.

"So you said you definitely wont be one of the candidates?" Raleigh asked crossing his arms as if to warm himself.

"No, I wont be" added Mako with a faint smile, "but as I said I picked the best suitable candidates."

Raleigh nodded his head "I still can't see how you aren't one of them with 51 kills at the academy."

Mako just avoided his eyes.

"Well I'll see you at breakfast Mr. Backet. The last team of Jaeger Pilots should be arriving right about now and I'll be bringing them there also if you'd like to meet them." said Mako slightly bowing.

"You can call me Raleigh." He said with a genuine smile.

Mako couldn't help but think he had a very charming smile. Or maybe it was just because he was shirtless, she couldn't decide. "Ok" she said and slowly added "Raleigh."

He flashed her one of those breath taking smirks and nodded his head. "See you later Mako."

Raleigh shut his door. It was curious to him that Mako was not one of, if not THE candidate to be his co-pilot.

While he was thinking about this he realized Mako had said another team of Pilots were arriving. But he thought they were already all here?

He counted all the operating Jaegers in is head; Chinese Jaeger Crimson Typhoon piloted by the Wei Triplets, Australian Jaeger Striker Eureka piloted by Herc Hansen and his (jackass) son Chuck Hansen, Russian Jaeger Cherno Alpha piloted by Sasha Kaidonovsky and her husband Aleksis Kaidonovsky And there was him with Gipsy Danger.

Well he'd meet them soon anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

_authors note;_

_Thank you SOOO much for all the Fallows and Favorites and especially the reviews! They make my day and help me write :) and i want to apologize for not updating that often, I'm not a fast writer, but you can trust that i will always update sooner or later. THANK YOU! P__le_ase don't hesitate to share your opinion with me. Stay excellent and don't forget to be awesome.

* * *

Raleigh set down on an empty table at the cafeteria with his breakfast. Curiously it wasn't as crowded as usual.

He looked around for Tendo and just as he did, Tendo set across from him with a bang "How are we doing my man, still breaking hearts?"

This made Raleigh smile "You know me I can't help my charm." He winked.

Tendo grinned a huge grin and said "that's right! Thought him everything he knows!" looking around talking to nobody in particular.

As they acted like teenagers, Herc Hansen set next to Raleigh and asked afterwords "Mind if I join you boys?"

"No sir." said Raleigh. For a moment there was awkward silence. Herc looked at Raleigh who looked like he was suppressing a smile and looked at Tendo who looked visible tensed up. Herc had a MUCH higher rank than them so being the 'respectful Tendo' was just commonsense.

"Come on now don't be shy, you're making me feel old." Said Herc winking at Tendo. Raleigh laughed at this and Tendo flashed an uneasy but a little more relaxed smile.

"So did the new Jaeger come in?" asked Herc changing the subject.

Tendo's eyes sparkled with interest and excitement. "Yes, sir. You should see it, those girls took Tacit Ronin and made it so much better with the small resources they had and we don't even understand some of the things they did! Its like I can't decide if they are geniuses or just… crazy."

Herc agreed "Yeah, first time in a Jaeger at 17… that's unheard of-"

"Wait a second, wait a second. Who are we talking about here?" Asked Raleigh.

"You've never heard of them?" asked Tendo, looking at Raleigh as if he said he didn't like to chocolate. Everybody likes chocolate.

"Heard of who?" asked Raleigh.

Tendo looked at Herc as if asking for permission, he wanted to be the one to tell the story so bad. Herc nodded giving him the go. Tendo looked like a nerd talking about the Star Wars movies. (and in a way he was)

"Ok so, these two girls, 2-3 years old little girls, orphaned by the Kaiju attacks and sent to one of the orphanages in Turkey because of the Children protection system that was set up those days, you know shipping young orphans to more secure areas, meaning far from the Pacific. As they grow older, it becomes obvious that there girls are extraordinary, one of them is a plain out genius, skipping grades, has an eidetic memory (photographic memory) AND she could do complex equations at the age of 8 and stuff!" Tendo took a breath and looked at Raleigh expectantly.

"Wow…" Raleigh obliged.

Tendo continued "And the other one is a genius too but in a different sense, this girl is like tiny this super soldier. Think Captain America but a lot younger and as a tiny girl. Knows all these different fighting styles like, she become a black belt in BJJ in 2 years!" at this point Tendo was so fired up he was practically yelling. "And she become a gold Olympic medalist in judo at the age of 16. This girl is like a machine! Kicking all kinds of ass in all kinds of tournaments!" Realising the looks they were getting, he kept talking in a calmer tone "And see them being the 'geniuses' they are they decide to fix up a Jaeger-"

"Wait a minute," Raleigh cuts him off "how can two teenagers get their hands on a Jaeger?"

"Easy actually, these girls are quite high profile in the academic world. One of them being a star athlete with all sorts of sponsors and scholarships and the other is a genius whom every school would kill to have. Some collages would pay them so they'll attend their school.

So they just decide to attend a university that had a good Mechanics program and a scrapped out Jaeger that was given to the school for study purposes." Herc added.

"Yeah," Tendo agreed. "and these girls put all their sponsor and scholarship money in to building back this Jaeger and they actually manage to do it!"

As he talks, Chuck Hansen walked towards their table and sat down in a way that made the whole table jump and Tendo with it. He was so into telling the story that he hadn't seen Chuck approach them.

Raleigh could read Chuck just from the way he moved; cocky. Overly confident. Arrogant. Raleigh didn't see anything wrong with a little bit of self-confidence but he still wondered how someone as arrogant as Chuch could be related to someone as humble as Herc. Yeah, he was a good pilot but it didn't make him less of a dick.

"Let me guess," started Chuck with a half smirk on his face. "We are talking about the new kittens that Pentecost found in a box outside the Shatterdome."

"They are Ranger like you and i boy and we need all the help we can get so show a little respect, will you?" Hissed Herc, he obviously didn't want to talk this way in front of Raleigh and Tendo but Chuck had a habit of forcing him to say thing he didn't want to say.

Chuck wished he didn't call him "boy"… he really hated it when Herc called him "boy".

"Rangers? Hardly. They have been in a Jaeger what? Once? And I'm not even sure if you could call that scrap a Jaeger. That peace of crap was in pieces at the end of their battle. They are lucky to be alive really."

"Wait battle? They fought a Kaiju?" asked Raleigh in spite of himself.

Tendo looked like he was about to say something but Chuck cut him off "Yeah they did and what happened is they got lucky. Shaolin Rogue had already wounded the Kaiju and was destroyed in the process. There girls come up out of nowhere with what remains of the Tacit Ronin, that old ass Mark-1 and they manage to stay alive long enough for the Kaiju to bleed out. So now people call em geniuses and heroes, when what they are really is lucky reckless teenagers."

As he finished his rent Pentecost, Mako and two girls walked in the cafeteria. Every head turned towards them. Ignoring this Pentecost turned towards the girls and said something after talking towards their table. The girls looked around the same age as Mako and they didn't seem to mind people's stares.

"gentleman, I would like to introduce you to our last team of rangers, Miss Akira Snow and Miss Olivia Snow." Introduced Pentecost.

First thing Raleigh observed about the girls was that they were nothing alike. Akira was a tall and skinny girl with the body of a runway model. She had pretty cat like dark eyes and dark wavy hair that was unevenly cut and the way she held herself was quite clumsy. On the other had Olivia stood as though nothing could knock her off her feet. She was quite short and had a slim but built body. Curves in all the right places. She had big brown eyes and with her long straight hair that was red her eyes glazed in a way that made them look red also.

"It's an honor." said Olivia shaking Herc's hand.

"The honor is all mine," Herc got up as he shook her hand. "This is Tendo Choi, he is our J-Tech Chief at our local command center."

Tendo smiled shook the girls hands eagerly. "Its really nice to have you on board." Both girls smiled an shook his hand.

"This is my son and co-pilot Chuck Hensen." Herc continued. Olivia held her hand out to Chuck and at the same time chuck took his cup from the table and took a sip "Sorry," he swallowed "my hands are full." For a second Raleigh though he saw a flicker of anger in Olivia's eyes but a second later it was all gone.

Relight reached for her hand.

"And this is Raleigh Becket, the pilot of Gipsy Danger" Herc added with a spike of discontent in his voice. "

"It's very nice to meet you both." Raleigh said with a smile. They both seem to not mind or just ignore Chuck's little game. In fact they both seemed quite taken with Raleigh.

"The pleasure is all ours." said Olivia and Akira jumped in and blurted out "Gipsy was always our favorite"

This caused an awkward silence. Olivia smiled at this.

"Don't get me wrong," Akira turned to Herc as if to clear up a huge miss understanding "Striker Eurika is a walking wonder, I mean she is quicker than any other previous Jaeger series produced with its T-16 Angel Wings acting as stabilizers to maintain aerodynamic balance during the turbulence of burst combat and she has amber platinum vision, equipped with advanced photochromic displays, allowing four planes of situational awareness. That's just brilliant! And then there is the 4.211 Brass Knuckles that are a temperature-resistant brass-steel compound cast around the joints of each finger extension, adding greatly to the impact potential of each friggin punch and they're backed with a pair of twin retractable Assault Mount 3.25 Sting-Blades laced with carbon nanotubes that channel thermal energy at temperatures over three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, that can wounding and cauterizing Kaiju in close combat. Striker is just wonderful!" She took a deep breath. "But we've always loved Gipsy Danger."

Chuck snorted. No body seemed to know what to say. Realizing this Olivia said "It's probably because of her name. We always found it cute."

Raleigh couldn't help his smile "Well im sure she'll love you also." This earned him a HUGE smile from Akira.

"I do hope so" she said sounding excited.

Raleigh nodded at the girl and looked at Olivia, she had smile on her face that said thank you.

"Well im sure you two are tired. Miss mori will show you to your rooms now" Petntecost said to the girls. Raleigh couldn't help but think he sensed gentleness in the Marshal's voice.

"Yes sir. Thank you." The girls said in union and followed mako with everybody's gaze still on them.

As soon as they left Pentecost barked "Hensen." It was quite obvious which one he was referring to. "You're going to stop doing what you are doing, do you understand?"

"Yess, sir." Chuck said with a mocking tone. Pentecost shared a look with Herc and walked away without another word.

"It was Pentecost's bright idea to bring these girls here, if it were anybody else they would be paying for their stupidity and recklessness instead of getting in a Jaeger." Said Chuck with a heavy tone. He got up and walked away without any other word.

"Whats his problem?" Raleigh asked. No body had an answer for him. Raleigh had been a cocky guy himself before but Yancy's death had humbled him. He only hoped nothing like that would have to happen to the Hensen's. true he didn't particularly like Chuck but he wouldn't wish a loss like that on anybody.

"They are not real siblings are they?" asked Herc.

"Nah they are not related at all, they just happened to find each other in this catastrofuck that's called life. And since they were never adopted, they gave themselves their own surnames." Tendo said.

"Do you know where they are originally from?" asked Raleigh

"Not sure, but I think they prefer to say they are Turkish. You know, grew up there an all." Raleigh nodded at this.

They were definitely an interesting bunch.

* * *

As Olive followed Mako, she clenched her fists as hard as she could digging her nails in to her palms. She hated passive aggressive people, especially when she hadn't done anything to deserve such treatment. But she did her best as always to calm herself. It wouldn't be good if she got in a fight with one of the "star" Rangers on the first day and she really didn't want to let the Marshal down.

"Here are your rooms," said Mako "they are right across from each other. If you need anything my room is right next to yours ." she said to Akira

"Please you can call us by our first names" Olivia said to her, Mako smiled at this. "and please don't call her Olivia but Olive." Akira added.

"Olive?" Mako questioned.

"Yeah, I usually answer to that." Olive winked as if to say humor her.

"Alright, Olive." mako said. It was funny she had heard similar words just this morning.

"So, are you a pilot too?" asked Olive

"No im not. But I want to be more than anything."

"Then why don't you just become one?" asked Akira as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. If you want to be something, you should just be it. Duhh.

Mako smiled "I'm afraid its not that simple,-"

"-the Marshal has his reasons." Said Raleigh in union with Mako. "you sound like you're trying to convince yourself." Said Raleigh to Mako.

"Well im sure you have more right to be in a Jaeger then us anyway" Akira murmured walking in to her room.

Mako didn't seem to know what to say about this.

"What do you think about us being pilots?" Olive asked Mako, watching her with curious eyes. She knew they werent the most popular of Rangers.

"I think…" Mako started and hesitated for a second. "I think if it were someone else they wouldn't be let in to a Jaeger. I think you are unpredictable." She stopped. She stared at Olive. "I think you are unexperienced and reckless."

Olive smiled at her and nodded.

Akira popped her head out of her room and said "Thank you for your honesty." And went back in as she did.

Once again Mako nodded, without knowing how to act.

After a good minute of awkward silence Olive cleared her throat and asked "Anyway, I was wondering where the training room was?"

Mako opened her mouth to say something but before she could say anything, "I'm going there as soon as I change, I could show you" Raleigh said.

Mako looked between Raleigh and Olive. She was staring up at him intensely and Raleigh had a comfortable and amused grin on his face. Mako hoped she didn't look like Olive when she was looking in to Raleigh's eyes.

Olive hesitated for a slight second then said "Ok, that would be fine."


	3. Chapter 3

_authors note;_

_Hey guys! Thank you once again so much for all the Fallows and Favorites! They make my day. But I am hoping for more reviews cuz, believe me, knowing what you like and what you don't like about the story and characters__hey help me A LOT!_ So PLEASE review! I'd love to know what you guys think of **Akira** and **Olive**. P_le_ase don't hesitate to share your opinion with me. Stay excellent and don't forget to be awesome!

* * *

Raleigh and Olive walked towards the training room in a comfortable silence, work out bags in hand.

Raleigh appreciated this, normally he would either feel the need to say something or it would just feel awkward. As they walked people said hi to Raleigh and just gave strange looks to Olive. When he first came here he was the one who got strange looks so he could understand how this could bother somebody but Olive didn't seem to mind.

"So, are you excited to get back in to a Jaeger?" Olive asked looking at him curiously.

"I am." Raleigh paused, "first I need to find my co-pilot though."

Olive nodded her head.

"You can call me Raleigh by the way."

She looked at him and said "I can. But that would mean I'll have to tell you that its ok to call me Olive."

"You don't have to." Raleigh said amused.

She shook her head. "It's fine. You can call me Olive."

"Why Olive?" Raleigh asked as they entered the empty training area.

"Akira. When I was little I loved olives so she though it was ironically suiting."

Raleigh smirked "You don't sound like an 'Olive'."

She raised a brow "What is an Olive supposed to sound like?"

He shrugged "Not sure. But probably not like an 'Olivia'."

She smiled as they walked in to the training area.

Olive had come wearing sweatpants and a shirt that was too big on her, she went to a corner and without hesitating she took of the sweatpants. To Raleigh's relief she was wearing training shorts that was tight underneath. While Raleigh didn't want to seem like he was watching her, he couldn't help but wonder; is she really as good as they say? Before he had left his room to get here he had quickly checked her and Akira's fight with the Kaiju on YouTube (of course it had millions of views) and Chuck couldn't have been more wrong. These girls were good even with the Jaeger they had. Even then, the Jaeger was impressive thinking about the circumstances they put it together in.

She started bandaging her hands, he could see it was second nature to her. He watched the way she stretched from the corner of his eye, trying to look as busy as she did. She had a way of moving that made you want to keep watching, her built frame was trained for fighting but it looked like it was made for dancing. Elegant yet lethal. She looked quite beautiful.

She glanced his way and quickly he tuned his head, took his jump rope out of his bag and started counting.

1,2,3…

When he returned his gaze to her she was shadow boxing her eyes closed, looking quite concentrated.

20,21,22…

She moved fast and with perfect technique. Her red hair was in a messy bun and it flashed left and right as she moved. She was as good as they said. As far as he could tell anyway.

58,59,60…

She has a great posture and great foot work. His only critique would have been that she let her guard down because her hands were too lose, but she probably made up for that in technique and speed. It said something about her personality. She was confident in her ability enough that she didn't feel the need to guard herself. Cocky.

The rope caught on his feet and he realized he had lost count. He looked down at his feet untangling himself.

"You were at 73." Olive said.

He looked up to see her big brown eyes looking at him. He asked "You were counting?"

She gestured her head to the rope in his hands "The clicking sound, I cant help but count it. It's an obsessive behavior thing."

"Does it bother you?"

"No, its kinda soothing actually."

"Ok then" he said. Interesting.

He thought about asking her if she wanted to practice together and hesitated for a second and as he was about to ask, she said "Do you mind helping me out?"

He looked at her, caught off guard by the irony.

"If you don't mind of course, I'll understand if you'd rather work out alone but I need to work on my 'dialog' and doing that alone is kind hard."

He smiled. "Its ok, I was about to ask the same thing."

She had a relieved expression for a split second then it disappeared. She didn't want to get rejected and she didn't want to show weakness also.

"Marshal wants me and Akira to show him our dialog, you know, for the physical compatibility."

He raised an eyebrow "I thought you guys were already a team."

She took a deep breath "We are, but we aren't your usual academy Rangers so, he just wants to see." She looked in to his eyes "He wants to see if our compatibility was just a fluke or not. He wants to make sure that we can handle this." Everybody did.

He looked back in to her eyes without saying anything but nodded. She liked his eyes. They were a nice shade of blue.

"Remember its not-"

"-its not about beating somebody, it's about a dialog. I know." She said with a sigh.

"-and patience." added Raleigh with a smirk. She was inpatient. She pushed her lips together and nodded. They both took their stance and started.

She was the one to make the first move and she was hasty about it, if it weren't for her good technique that would have been a point for Raleigh. The Second time around she let him come to her and she pulled him down immediately, what she didn't expect was the way he came back; She had thrown him over his shoulder with a Judo throw (looking at it from the outside a 5' 3" girl was throwing a 6' 1" guy over her shoulder) and hadn't expected him to recover from it but he had as he tripped her from the ground and got her in a heel hook. She tapped yielding.

He got up and reached for her hand. As he pulled her up he said "you are fighting me, not listening to me. You have to move with me not at me." She nodded. Wrinkling her nose.

And this time they danced. It was like every move she made he knew what came next and she knew what came after that. It was like it was practiced, he moved and she filled in the blanks.

* * *

They set on the floor breathing heavily. They had worked out for hours and it only got better. Raleigh was pretty sure this was what compatible felt like but he decided not to say anything about it. They set there waiting for their breathing to calm down, Olive handed Raleigh her water bottle. "Thanks." He muttered and took it. After taking a couple of big sips he handed it back to her and wiped the sweat of her face with the edge of his shirt.

Olive took a peek and regretted it right as she did. His abs looked like they were carved out of marble for gods sake... She mentally slapped herself; of course he was built. He was a Ranger. She was glad she was already red from the work out, if not her blushing would show.

"Shouldn't Akira be here? I mean she is your Co-Pilot afterall and I'm pretty sure she needs the work out more than you do." Raleigh asked.

Olive shrugged "She'll be fine..."

Raleigh didn't see how but didn't push the subject.

"What do you think?" She asked suddenly.

"About?"

"Us being rangers." She said simply.

He stared at his feet, thinking "I do agree it was reckless," he looked up at her "but I can understand why you did what you did."

She looked at him.

"And I think in the end you guys saved a city full of people and that was very brave and extraordinary."

"Why do you think we did it then?" She asked

"What do you mean?"

"You said you could understand why we did what we did. Why do you think we did it?" She asked again not breaking her eye contact. He felt like it was a dare to her. Who ever looks away first looses, so he didn't.

"I think when you lose your loved ones, you feel like your life is taken away from you. You feel like you were destined to feel half empty, broken and lost." He said. She raised an eyebrow. "And I think this was your way of taking your destiny back in to your own hands. The Kaiju had taken it from you when you were little, so now you took it back"

For half a minute she didn't say anything just looked in to his eyes, then she smirked and said "So I gather you know our sobbing story."

He smiled and "Yeah word gets around. Don't worry, we all have em."

"Sounds like you know the feeling." She said pulling her knees to her stomach and hugging her legs.

He hesitated "Yeah…"

"You don't have to tell me."

He blinked, not breaking eye contact was getting harder. He smiled "Its only fair"

She put her head on her knees and watched at him with tired yet interested eyes.

"I was 15 when the first Kaiju, Trespasser attacked San Francisco, me and my brother Yancy had watched the attack as it was broadcasted with our mother and father. Some time after that, our mother got diagnosed with cancer. Even then she didn't stop smoking. After we buried her, our father left. I think he just didn't know what to do, he was lost without her. So from that point on we only had each other." He said finally looking at his hands. Olive was still watching his face, the way he tried hiding his anger and sadness with calm words. With anybody else he would be able to hide them well but she didn't buy it. She did the same thing after all.

"So me and Yancy decided to join the Jaeger Program."

"to take back your destiny in your own hands." She said.

He looked at her big brown eyes. "Yes." He agreed. Her eyes held interest which made Raleigh remember Yancy. He didn't know that many people who really looked in to ones eyes and sincerely listened like they cared. It's easy to ask one how they are, but actually listening the answer and caring about it is a rare ability not many has and Yancy had it. And so did she.

"And we did. For a while anyway…" he trailed off. He didn't know how to continue.

After a minute of silence "I'm sorry for your loss." she said almost in a whisper. Many people knew about what happened to Yancy of course, it was all over the news.

He smiled and nodded "Yeah, me too."

* * *

Olive stood next to Akira in the crowd that was watching Raleigh Becket go through his co-pilot candidates like they were nothing. The candidates weren't bad but as Olive came to understand, they just weren a match with Raleigh. It wasn't about skill but being compatibility with each other, knowing one another's steps. What was curious was the face Mako made after every patch ended.

As if he heard this, Raleigh said "Ok whats wrong with them?"

"Excuse me?" Mako asked

"Every time a match ends you make this gesture," he made the face Mako was making "Like you are critical of that performance."

"It's not their performance I'm critical about, its yours. You could have finish every single match two moves earlier that you did." She was right.

People from the crowd made "ooohhh" sounds.

This made Raleigh raise an eyebrow. Smirking he said "Why don't we change this up, lets give her a change." Pentecost's face said that wasn't happening. Whispers rose from the crowd.

"All the suitable candidates to be you co-pilot are here . No changes will be made." Pentecost said in a voice that said that final.

Any other man would shut up but of course, not Raleigh.

"Why you don't think your brightest can keep up with me?" dared Raleigh.

Mako looked at The Marshal with big hopeful eyes. He took a deep breath, he knew he would regret this later.

"Go." he said with a sigh.

* * *

The crowd clapped as loud as they could at the sight of the great match they just saw.

"I've seen enough." Said Pentecost stopping Mako and Raleigh's match. They were obviously compatible.

"Yeah me too, Mako is my Co-Pilot." Said Raleigh getting up off of the matt and putting a hand on her shoulder. Makos face lit up.

"No, she will not." Said Pentecost "I've already made my decision. You will be test piloting Gipsy Danger tomorrow and you'll meet your Co-Pilot then."

Without a word Mako picked up her stuff off the floor and walked next to the Pentecost to take back her place as point keeper. You could read her disappointment from her face. At this point Olive wanted to step in and say something, even a blind man could see that they would be drift compatible and as she was about to Akira put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at her ready to protest but Akira shook her head and whispered. "You don't have to fight their battles for them. Let it go." Olive took a breath and bit her lips hard, she was right.

Raleigh opened his moth to protest but Pentecost cut him off "Ok, next up it's Miss Olive and Akira Snow, step up please." forcing him to let it go.

Raleigh raised an eyebrow and took his place among the crowd next to Herc to watch the girls. Herc gave him a sympathetic smile and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

With Mako and Raleigh's match Akira and Olive had completely forgotten about the fact that they would be under the same spotlight.

They stepped up on to the met together, Olive's determined step made Akira look clumsier than usual. She looked completely lost.

Olive took her place across from Akira and picked up the wooden sword motioning to Akira to do the same and she did, but only it was upside down. Olive motion to her to fix it and Akira did with a "Ohh! Right." This made people laugh. Akira blushed a little but Olive paid no attention to them. She gave Akira a determined nod as if to say "don't worry, this will work" and as Mako gave the start signal Olive tripped Akira with an easy swing of her sword and Akira was on her back, hard. Several "Ohhh.." sounds rose from the crowd.

"1-0" announced Mako but without waiting for a second signal Akira took a counter attack which knocked Olive back a couple of steps but Raleigh could tell she had been waiting for it. She had that face she made when she knew she was going get hit. Akira struck Olive with a perfect combo with a perfect posture, the clumsy girl was all gone. This surprised everybody, suddenly she was a fighting machine like her adopted sister, her body reacted to Olives attacks at the perfect timing at the perfect rhythm. They were going back and forth with the same dedication and same technique. It was like they both knew exactly what would come next.

People gave each other looks of amazement but this wasn't what amazed Raleigh, he knew how Olives body moved when she fought. He knew cuz he had watched her and trained with her. He knew her rhythm, her posture, how she looked almost like she was dancing and that was unique to her, he had never seen it with anybody else. He even knew her fault which was letting her guard down out of cockiness and Akira was doing the exact same thing now, as if she was mirroring Olive.

Raleigh whispered to Herc "I thought Akira was the brains between the two, did you know she could fight like this?"

"No, as far as I know she has the reflexes of a box of matches." He said sounding surprised.

The match went on without and point being given. They moved in union, their attacks and defences fitting in with each other like puzzle pieces. No one was superior, it was like they were copies and how could one beat oneself anyway?

"That's quite enough." Said the Pentecost waking up everybody from the dream they were in. Everybody but Akira.

While Olive dropped the sword off her hands Akira ren at her as if she didn't hear the Marshal, but Olive was waiting for this so with a swift movement she took Akira in a choke hold and whispered something into her ear nobody else could hear.

Akira dropped the sword off her hands and blinked as though she just woke up.

People started whispering to each other.

Olive slowly released her.

"Ok people the show is over-"

The loud alarm made everybody jump. A Kaiju was about to attack.

"I want every body back on their posts NOW!" yelled Pentecost. Everybody ren to their working post and all the Rangers lined up in teams around the Marshal. He took a good look at all of them and rested his eyes on the Snow sisters "Whats the situation?" He asked in to his radio.

"Its a Category 3 sir, code name Belobog." Tendo's voice said over the radio.

"Cherno Alpha I want you ready for back up," Ordered the Marshal.

The Russians nodded, "Yes sir."

"And Tacit Ronin, get ready, I want you on the front line."

"Yes sir." Said Olive and Akira in union.


End file.
